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History

While specific information has been lost, archaeological evidence has indicated that Anargo was settled during M25, towards the end of the Dark Age of Technology. As a result of coreward expansion to what would become the Ultima segmentum and the phenomenon that is known either as the ‘Heart of Anargo’ of the ‘Anargo Abyss’, warp travel from the old Dark Age ‘empire’ of humantiy was prevented. The Heart of Anargo was the reef upon which many warp ships were broken. As such both the population and the infrastructure of Anargo developed at a rapid pace as a stop gap towards the coreward expansion.

And then came the Age of Strife. The technology that had long since served humanity now turned on itself and, at the same time, the madness of the warp released the potential in humanity that had long since lain dormant: psykers began to appear on worlds all over the Imperium. On Anargo the problem was more acute than that experienced on many worlds and, while the world did not fall to the Ruinous Powers, there were times when the surface of the planet was scoured by the forces unleased by the untrained witches. The resultant pogroms against the psyker population, and also the ‘mutants’, were incredibly harsh. Indeed, the effects are felt even in the modern population of Anargo where the psyker tithe is much lower than on other worlds of similar population.

Perhaps not unusually, however, the legend of the ‘pure witch’ perpetuated through the psyker-ravaged population fostered a sense of hope. A messiah who would lead them out of the madness and into the light and greatness of what once was. Around this belief and the need to justify their continued pogroms was born the Anargan Theocracy, a church that could wash the sins of their actions away and remind them of the forthcoming messiah.

As Anargo rebuilt itself, so too did it begin to reach out once more to the stars that it once offered succour to. Using those warp-capable craft that had survived the Age of Strife and the millennia of fear-inspired disuse, they travelled to the nearby systems and began to slowly build up the Protectorate constituted of what would ultimately became the Anargo subsector of the Imperium.

With the coming of the Imperium, the Anargans and the Protectorate at first resisted, not in terms of ‘hard’ military resistance but ‘soft’ resistance; apathy given over to a conquering nation. While the historical veracity has yet to be determined, it was shortly after the initial ‘conqeuring’ of the Protectorate and the other ‘micro-empires’ that had survived in the sector that the Emperor was said to have arrived at the head of a mighty fleet. Some say that he landed on Anargo and, in so doing, persuaded the Anargan people and their government to join with Him on his quest to unite all of the humans under the banner of the Imperium of Mankind. (The Anargan crest is said to have been a personal gift to the Jacort line, known throughout Anargan history as a benevolent family until its last son became an integral part of the Vandirian Anargan Theocracy.) Others point to legends of the Dorvastan nebulae appearing in the sky of Anargo at this time, sending the Emperor and his Fleet towards Dorvastor.

Whether true or not, from this point on the Anargans became an integral part of the Imperium. Their rebuilt economy allowed itself and the other worlds of Anargo to contribute to the Great Crusade of the Emperor. Until the Age of Apostasy Anargo continued to serve in this function, its position as subsector capital confirmed shortly after integration into the Imperium.

While it, like the other worlds of the what would become the Anargo sector and those of the sectors surrounding it, was to suffer its own wars, plagues, revolts and heresies it was not until the rise of Vandire and the Age of Apostasy did anything of monumental significance occur in its socio-history. Vandire’s influence allowed the perpetuation of the cruel and pernicious elements of the Anargan Theocracy: the social division between ‘priest’ and those in favour with the majority of the population widened, as did the trappings of the classes (i.e. technological access). The single feature that supported the Anargans through the Age of Strife now became an unbearable yoke. As the Thorian and Vandirian forces came into conflict over the Imperium following the death of Vandire, the Anargo sector was not left unscathered. On Anargo itself the population began to strike and riot, the pressures requiring the Anargan Theocracy to use the adeptus arbites and the local PDF as a bludgeon against the people they once served.

One commander of the adeptus arbites, an influential off-worlder called Albrecht Gaius, watched in horror as the pogroms continued against something other than the ‘heretic, mutant, psyker and alien’. As the Sargassos subsector reacted to the Alpha Legion presence and the pro-Vandirian forces were pushed back, Gaius lead a coup d’etat against the leaders of the Anargan Theocracy, using loyalist PDF and adeptus arbites elements. The structure of the Anargan Theocracy rapidly crumbled, corrupt as it was in a top-down manner, though this did not prevent the atrocities against those only nominally involved in the Theocracy (primarily the local priests). Gaius rapidly consolidated his own power, a feature that he thought was only temporary, through the utilisation of noble families (nobilitas provincialis) whose involvement in the Anargan Theocracy was as minimal as possible. These families remain represented in the Advisory Council to this day.

Following the pacification of Anargo, Gaius maintained his interest in the external affairs of the Anargo subsector, a feature which was validated by the senatorum imperialis raising him to the ranks of Imperial Commander of the ordo eques and resituating the capital status on Anargo.

The Academy was founded by Gaius and, while its purpose has changed somewhat since those early days, remains a useful training ground for officers and troops over the entire Anargo subsector.